Awards & Winners

Sol Spiegelman

Date of Birth 14-December-1914
Place of Birth Brooklyn
(United States of America, New York City, New York, New York-White Plains-Wayne, NY-NJ Metropolitan Division)
Nationality United States of America
Profession Scientist
Sol Spiegelman was an American molecular biologist. He developed the technique of nucleic acid hybridization, which helped to lay the groundwork for advances in recombinant DNA technology. Spiegelman was born and educated in New York City, and earned a bachelor's degree in mathematics from the City College of New York in 1939. He began his graduate studies at Columbia University in 1940, looking into cellular physiology. He completed his graduate studies at Washington University in St. Louis where he also lectured in physics and applied mathematics, receiving his doctorate there in 1944. After a year as a U.S. Public Health Service Fellow at the University of Minnesota, he joined the faculty of the University of Illinois and later became a professor of microbiology where he stayed for 20 years. In 1962, he improved a technique that allowed the detection of specific RNA and DNA molecules in cells. Called nucleic acid hybridization originally developed by Rich and Davies in 1956, , it was the combination of viral DNA and viral RNA which helped to lay the groundwork for advances in recombinant DNA technology.

Awards by Sol Spiegelman

Check all the awards nominated and won by Sol Spiegelman.

1974


Albert Lasker Award for Basic Medical Research
(For his contributions to molecular biology, including techniques of molecular hybridization and the first synthesis of an infectious nucleic acid.)